Monday, September 19, 2016

So Long, Farewell...

It's truly the end of an era when we have to say goodbye to one of the Von Trapp children from The Sound of Music (1965.) Who would have believed that Charmian Carr would predecease her on-screen father and (new) mother? As Liesl, Carr took my kiddie breath away with her cotton candy pink dress, dancing and whirling around the gazebo and made me want to sit at the foot of a guitar with my dress spread about just so, singing Edelweiss. We're sad to see her depart this earth, but are grateful for her personal character and her contribution to the world of movie musicals. (The black & white photo is from a televised presentation of Evening Primrose opposite Anthony Perkins.)
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5 comments:

Gingerguy said...

Oh gosh this made me sad today when I read it. First of all I can't believe she was that old (because of course that makes me...not that young). I thought she was so perfect vocally in that movie and really lovely. One of the many performances I love in the film. I also saw "Evening Primrose" and thought it was super weird, but she was good in it. Totally the end of an era, luckily film captures performances like hers to enjoy forever, she will always be young and beautiful in my mind. Thanks for the tribute.

September 19, 2016 at 1:54 PM
Scooter said...

Sad news. She was one of my favorite things.

September 20, 2016 at 7:49 AM
joel65913 said...

Hard to wrap my head around this but with the number of notable names we've lost this year it's become almost a continual litany of shock and loss.

Her bio Forever Liesl was charming and she came across as an intelligent friendly woman. It was great that she and the other kids stayed close through the years and that she retained positive memories of Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and Eleanor Parker.

Like Gingerguy I've also seen Evening Primrose and I agree with his assessment. An interesting but strange program. Although she didn't do much in the way of performance she was lucky that one of those was something so iconic, what a great legacy to leave behind.

September 20, 2016 at 9:00 AM
Poseidon3 said...

Gingerguy, it was shocking to find out years ago that Carr was 21 when filming SOM because she fit in so well with the rest of the brood. I think in a way it helped that she was slightly older than the role because once the story progressed to the more serious moments, her maturity came through well (though Liesl was, let's admit it, a tiny bit dense to think that Nazi-uniformed Rolf was just going to ignore them when he was so eager to be accepted by the party...) And, yes, the fact that she didn't do a great deal more does help capture her in amber forever, which is nice.

Scooter, I love your choice of words! :-)

Joel, the herd is being thinned daily, but so often with the wrong people going! LOL And, yes, if you're only going to do a limited amount of screen work, you can hardly go wrong with one of them being The Sound of Music!

As an aside, I have a friend from this blog who doesn't post publicly, but who knew Charmian personally and attests to her warm and wonderful character and personage. Her sweet demeanor was no act. It was the way she was.

And a dot of trivia for those who didn't already know. Charmian's younger sister Darleen Carr was in many movies and TV series. She was recurring on "The Streets of San Francisco" as Karl Malden's daughter and her older sister Shannon Farnon was the voice of Wonder Woman on "Super Friends," as well as appearing in many things.

September 20, 2016 at 1:34 PM
hsc said...

According to her Wikipedia entry, Charmian Carr's younger sister Darleen actually was a part of "The Sound of Music"-- though off-screen-- "dubbing the high singing voice for Duane Chase as Kurt."

I assume that would be the high notes in "So Long, Farewell" where the dubbing is obvious.

September 24, 2016 at 11:16 PM

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